Nicander Prusak

Holy Venerable Martyr Nicander Prusak was a hieromonk and was shot by the Bolsheviks on 30 June (13 July in the new style) 1918.

He was born in 1865 in the Kamenets-⁠Podolsk province, in the family of the peasant Dmitri Prusak, and at baptism he was named Nikephoros. He was educated at home. Choosing the monastic path, he struggled in the Zelenchuk Hermitage of Saint Alexander of Athos, in the Caucasus. On 7 March 1896 he was tonsured with the name Nicander, on 8 June 1896 he was ordained hierodeacon, and on 30 November 1897 hieromonk. The monastery authorities regarded him as a very capable and hardworking monk.

In 1901 he was sent to the Saint Nicholas Missionary Monastery in the Caucasus, and in 1908 he returned to Zelenchuk. In 1913 he was transferred to the Trinity Optina Monastery in Bolkhov, in the Oryol diocese, where he was appointed acting treasurer; in 1916 he moved to the Tolga Monastery in the Yaroslavl diocese. In 1918 he was shot by the Bolsheviks and buried in an unknown place.

His memory is kept on 13 July, the day of his shooting in the new style, on 5 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl, and on 7 February (a movable day) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors.